Why God became Flesh, part three

 

Why God Became Flesh 

part three

 

You can watch this message here:  https://youtu.be/OyfubpFRh-o  

I will begin my message today reading portions of Genesis 1 which records the history of Creation. I begin here because this text forms an important backdrop for the theme of today’s message, which is part three of our look at the reasons Jehovah God became incarnate in the Person of Jesus.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth . . . Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters . . . and it was so.” Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. . . . Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.” 

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night . . . and it was so.” Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heaven . . . .” [and it was so]. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind . . . and it was so . . . Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .[and it was so].” (Genesis 1)

Orthodox Christians and Jews “understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) We understand God created everything in the universe, visible and invisible, by doing nothing more than simply SPEAKING them into existence.

To use the word ‘incredible’ to describe how God created our universe and everything in it by simply speaking it into existence – ‘incredible’ is a grossly impossible understatement.

 

I mean, just think of it for a moment: All God needed to do to create everything that is seen and unseen was to simply speak it into existence. 

 

Which brings us now to the incarnation.

 

Why should it seem so preposterous – as it does to many – that this One who created the entire universe with a word, why is it so absurd to so many people that this same One became incarnate as Jesus – fully human and fully God – who lived for a time with us? Why should such truth seem so ludicrous? I mean, we’re talking about God here – the omnipotent One who does whatever He pleases.

 

But I think there is something even more incredible than God simply speaking creation into being. Even more incredible than being incarnate in Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity.

 

What is that? I’ll tell you:

 

This same God who created humanity, then permitted that same humanity to spit on Him, punch Him with their fists, pull out His beard, and mercilessly whip Him until His back was a mass of shredded flesh.

 

And then this omnipotent, All-Sovereign Creator and King of the universe permitted them to nail Him to a cross.

 

And why did He let His creation do that to Him? That is yet another inexplicable truth. He did it because, as Scripture tells us again and again, because He loves YOU. And me.

 

But some will wonder, “I wasn’t even born when Jesus died. So how could He love me?”

 

Well, we must remember, God created not only creation, but He created the very concept of time itself. He CREATED time. That is why the future is as clear and open to Him as is the past and the present. For example, here is the psalmist David in his 139th psalm: “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

 

To Jeremiah, God said: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) We could look at other prophecies about the future births of specific people whom God would use for His purposes, such as King Josiah (1 Kings 13:2), or King Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28). But doing so would take us too far afield from the primary point of this message. Suffice it to say that from God’s omniscient point of view, and as I said a moment ago, the future is as clear to Him as the past. And both are as clear to Him as the present.

 

That is why I think it fair to say that when the God-Man Jesus hung on that cross, He STAYED on that cross because in His omniscient eyes He looked down through the millennia and saw YOUR face. And mine.

 

He saw our faces, and our needs, and our hurts, and our heartbreaks, and our lostness. Jesus stayed on that cross so He could, for all who call Him Lord, Master, and Savior, He could save us, heal us, nurture us, and embrace us. Right now. Today. Two thousand years after He saw your face as He hung there.

 

Incredible? Unimaginable? Inexpressible? There are no adjectives accurate enough to describe what God has done for you and for me.

 

Now, all that I just said is my lead-in to today’s theme – part three of the series, “Why did God become flesh and live with us?” To answer that question, let’s look again at Jesus’ own words when He visited a synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. He picked up the scroll of Isaiah and read from chapter 61:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21) 

Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor. That doesn’t necessarily mean the materially poor. The ‘good news’ of God is sent to everyone, regardless of their financial status. In fact, the Holy Spirit made it clear more than once in the gospels and the epistles that the wealthy need to be cautious that they do not think their riches indicate God’s pleasure. That idea is nonsense and is the stuff from which heresies are born. And as Solomon said, ‘There is nothing new under the sun.” Most of us are familiar with the modern counterpart to the first century idea of ‘Riches equals God’s pleasure.” Today it’s called the ‘Name-it-and-Claim-it” heresy. I can’t count how many false prophets of recent decades who got very wealthy – and remain very wealthy – by promising their biblically illiterate sheep, “God wants you healthy and wealthy.”

Jesus, of course, had other ideas about wealth and a person’s relationship with God. For example, Luke 16:13-15, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”

Or in Matthew 19:24-26: “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

St. James, writing to those who were not particularly wealthy, told them: “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?” (James 2:5-7)

So, while the context of the Lord’s reading from Isaiah could be understood to mean God came to bring good news to the materially poor – the text can also be understood to say, God came to bring good news to the ‘spiritually’ poor – to those of humble spirits. After all, isn’t that what the Lord told the crowd during the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)?

We only have to remember the incident recorded for us in Luke 18 where we find the Pharisee and the Tax Collector – both of whom were likely to have been financially comfortable. The Pharisee stood praying this way, “I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:12-14)

Third century Jewish Talmudic scholar wrote: "Why are the words of the law compared to water? Because as waters flow from heights, and settle in low places, so the words of the law rest only with him who is of a humble heart." 

So, Jehovah God became flesh in Jesus to preach the good news of the kingdom, the good news of forgiveness and the assurance of eternal life to the humble, to those who know they must rely on God for everything good in life.

Does that describe you? Do you know you must rely on God for everything good in life?

And why else did God become flesh? Let’s return to the Lord’s reading in the Nazareth synagogue: He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

We’ve talked during the past several weeks about sin and the misery sin brings with it. And most of us here know the truth of the adage: Sin will bring you where you do not want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

But the God became incarnate in Jesus to offer us not only a better way to live, but to give us the POWER to live a better way.

The first step in that transformative power in our life is to recognize the power sin still has over us. We must name that sin or those sins. Be specific. If you are Catholic, be specific in the confessional. Generic confessions do not help us get to the heart of our need for a changed life. Next, ask God’s forgiveness and healing. And then determine, with the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit, to live your life from now on in obedience to His word. 

That last point is just as important as the first. Our ability to overcome the power of sin in our lives originates from God alone. The hymn writer described it this way: “Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you o'er evil a victory win? There's wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb, there is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb.”

I’m almost out of time, so let me move quickly to yet another reason God became flesh and dwelt among us. The Lord Jesus told the congregation in Nazareth that He also came to bring “recovery of sight to the blind.”

God became flesh and lived among us to open blind eyes – not just physically blind eyes – and Jesus did heal the blind. We read of some of those times the gospels. But Jesus also came to open spiritually blind eyes, those who were blind to their bondage to sin, blind to the destruction and the eternal disaster facing them because of their sins.

Spiritual blindness was the desperate condition of the rich farmer Jesus spoke of in Luke 12. You might remember the story. The farmer was running out of storage space for his crops. We pick up the story in verse 18: ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

Do you want God to open your spiritual eyes? Of course, you do. Then seek spiritual sight from the only One who can give spiritual sight – God Himself.

When I began this series several weeks ago, planning to look at the many reasons Jehovah God became incarnate in the human body of Jesus, I did not realize how many reasons there are for that ineffable miracle of grace. I didn’t realize it because I had never, in all my 49 years of walking with Jesus, I never took the time to think about those reasons. And I hope that through this series your own spiritual life is being enriched.

Next week we will continue this series, examining the reasons God became flesh and dwelt among us.